The third season of the «Lord of the Rings» series has not yet been officially announced, but no one has any doubts about its release.
Moreover, despite the agreement for 50 episodes —, the main criterion for the continuation will be the audience’s attention. According to Amazon, the series «The Lord of the Rings» has attracted about 150 million viewers for two seasons in total.
«This 50-episode commitment has never been the driving force behind our actions. We will continue to make the series as long as we see that the audience loves it. This is a business. Obviously, we need a big audience — and we are getting one. So there’s no discussion about whether the show will be renewed,» says Jennifer Salke, head of Amazon Studios, in an interview with Variety.
Recall that the second season «Rings of Power» watched by 55 million viewers in a month — the figures are high, but significantly lower than those of the first season, which attracted 25 million viewers in just one day (at the same time, according to some reports, less than half of the initial audience watched the first season to the end). Meanwhile, the Nielsen Streaming report noted that the second season debuted with 1 billion minutes of viewing (the first season had 1.3 billion).
At the same time, the second season received slightly better ratings: for example, on Rotten Tomatoes, it had 84% from critics and 59% from the audience, while the first were estimated at 83% and 38%, respectively.
Set in the Second Age of Middle-earth (thousands of years before Frodo and the Fellowship of the Rings), «The Lord of the Rings» tells the story of how Sauron and the elves created the Rings of Power and then forged the One Ring to secretly control the others.
The second season ended the bloody battle for Eregion and the loss of some key characters, and at the same time revealed secrets that have long tormented viewers (in particular, that concerns the identity of the Stranger, whereas rumors about the identity of the Dark Wizard were debunked by the showrunners).